Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Drop in Edinburgh airport passengers amid issues with Ryanair and bmibaby
Passenger numbers at Edinburgh Airport have fallen amid a running dispute with Ryanair and uncertainty over the future of BMI. Terminal traffic for the first 4 months of 2012 are down 2% compared to the same period last year. The airport is fighting Ryanair on terms of a deal on landing charges, and because of that, Ryanair has scrapped 13 routes. It will probably cut more. Bmibaby, which hosts many regional flights around the UK, is set to close in September, with some routes being axed from next month. Edinburgh was recently sold to Global Infrastructure Partners for £807.2 million. Edinburgh saw record traffic of 9.4 million in 2011.
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Airport protesters target London Mayor Boris Johnson over his estuary plans
Campaigners fighting plans to build an airport off the Kent coast staged a protest outside City Hall, as a quick response to Boris Johnson's restatement of his ambition - a week after his re-election as Mayor of London - to build a new airport in the Thames estuary. Speakers at the protest included Jenny Jones, Murad Qureshi, and Caroline Pigeon as well as representatives from the North Kent areas currently blighted by the airport plans. The protest outside the mayor's offices came as Kent County Council (KCC) published its own vision of aviation. - not surprisingly hostile to the estuary plans (but in favour of absolutely everything else ...) London's mayor declined an interview with BBC South East, but Daniel Moylan, deputy chairman of Transport for London, said the estuary airport was close to Mr Johnson's heart.
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Boris reaffirms his enthusiasm for an estuary airport, and sees it as a “moment for greatness”
Having got back into power, Boris has already stated that he will use his second term of office to push his estuary airport scheme. Urging the government to give the scheme its backing, he repeated his belief that the hub airport - dubbed Boris Island - had the potential to place London as the "economic powerhouse of Europe." Boris wants a four-runway airport, which would be the biggest in the world, to be built in the Thames Estuary. He said: "The Government has got to seize the nettle. This is a moment for greatness. It is a moment for bravery" and "My gut feeling is that you could entrench London's position as the economic powerhouse of Europe. You would solve all sorts of problems in transport infrastructure and regeneration if you went for a big, bold solution of the kind that Norman Foster was outlining." There was a protest against the estuary airport plans outside City Hall.
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Justine Greening confirms no Heathrow 3rd runway, and no mixed mode in prospect
At a travel conference in London, the Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, conclusively ruled out any prospect of increasing flights at Heathrow: “We don’t think the third runway is the right thing.” She also said “mixed-mode” would not be considered in the government’s review of airport capacity. This technique, enabling aircraft to land and take off from both Heathrow runways, extracts at least 25% more capacity with no extra building - but subjects those on the ground to more noise. [BAA persists with its whinge that the UK economy is being damaged without more flights to China etc, (ignoring the fact that airlines could put these on, using other leisure travel slots, if there was the demand for them. When the aviation policy consultation starts, some time this summer, a key issue is going to be to really question the insidious perception that aviation growth is what drives the UK economy. The interests of airport operators and airlines are not necessarily the same as those of the wider society, and the soon everyone wakes up to this reality, the better].
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“Viable” urge council to buy Plymouth City Airport lease
Viable Group, which is an American investment advisor located in Texas, hopes to reopen Plymouth City Airport, and wants Plymouth City Council to buy back the lease for the site. Viable Group claims its five-year plan could see 500,000 passengers using the airport afer 5 years if owners, Sutton Harbour Group (SHG), would sell the lease. Sutton bought the 150 year lease from the council in 2000. Plymouth City Council said it supported the idea in theory. Some of the land at the airport has already been earmarked for a £38m housing project. Viable wants to start off with charter services, and then go to scheduled daily domestic flights using two 19-seater planes. Then they want a 40-metre extension to the runway, allowing 90-seater jets to connect Plymouth to Europe.
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After 28 days the Nantes hunger strike ends, with concession from authorities to reconsider land expropriations
After 28 days of hunger strike, which Michel Tarin endured to the end, and 5 others fasted for slightly shorter periods, the strike has ended. At last there have been concessions from the local authorities that the compulsory purchase of land owned by farmers and other local residents will be suspended for the time being. The expropriations will not now go ahead until the outcome of several legal proceedings that have been filed against the proposed airport. It is likely that these legal challenges will take up to two years, giving the campaigners two more years in which to continue their opposition. The hunger strikers ended their fast with bowls of soup, and though exhausted, they are delighted with the result. Drinking their soup together, surrounded by a huge an efficient network of support, the hunger strikers emphasized the quality of support they received each day and the climate of affection and solidarity that has buoyed them up during their ordeal.
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Fire safety problems delay new Berlin airport yet again – opening on 3rd June delayed to late August
The opening of Berlin's new airport will be delayed by up to 3 months due to fire safety problems. This an embarrassing blow to the German capital's flagship project less than a month before its planned launch, which had been due for 3rd June. Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, which will also be known as Willy Brandt Airport after West Germany's Cold War chancellor, may now open in the 2nd half of August, after the school holidays in Berlin and Brandenburg. Flights were to have been transferred from Berlin's Tegel airport, to the new one. The problem is that the fire safety installations - notably smoke extractors - were not ready, so a safe evacuation of passengers could not yet be acheived in the event of fire. The delay will cost the two existing airports, and some airlines, money. The opening of what will be Germany's third largest airport after Frankfurt and Munich, has been postponed once already.
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Customs checks ‘drop as staff move to passport control’
The Immigration Service Union warns that the number of customs checks at main UK airports has dropped because more staff than usual have been moved from other duties to work on passport control. Passengers were being waved through without extra checks, leaving the UK open to a higher risk of arms and drug smuggling. The government says it is committed to maintaining border security by deploying staff flexibly. Both the home secretary and immigration minister have pledged to deal with the airport immigration delays. But with customs staff being moved to help with passport checks, Heathrow staff "are having to reduce all other activity, and that includes the secondary activity of checking for drugs, firearms, and such like." Organised crime gangs are well aware of this.
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Cambridge Airport wants to expand its passenger flights
The Marshall Group, owner of Cambridge Airport, UK, is preparing to embark on a £20 million investment to develop the airport’s land and upgrade its infrastructure. Groundbreaking on the green field site, located to the south of the runway, is scheduled for July. Plans include a new taxiway and the rehabilitation of the runway. The airport says it has increased executive aviation movements. It is getting regional airline services and leading aviation companies as tenants. It wants to entice more businesses to the airport: Though it did well in 2001, the airport has too few commercial passengers to be recorded by the CAA.
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All BMI Baby routes from Belfast to go by 11th June, and Flybe moving into the gap
BMI Baby will stop all its flights from Belfast City airport from 11th June. The airport said 420,000 of its passengers last year had flown with BMI Baby. BMI Baby services from East Midlands to Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, Nice, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newquay, and from Birmingham to Knock and Amsterdam, will end on the same date. BMI Baby said it would not affect BMI mainline's service from Belfast to London Heathrow. Monarch said it would run services on 25% of routes operated by bmibaby from the Midlands. A BALPA spokesman said: “The frustration has now turned to anger following the news that Flybe (which is part owned by BA) has moved onto many of these bmibaby routes without any opportunity for staff to look at options and alternatives." Flybe is moving quickly onto some of the abandoned routes.